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E-waste Harvesters Inc. President Earl Campbell says many people don’t realize there may be hazardous materials in the electronics that are thrown into trash cans. He’s working to recycle old electronics.

Patrick O'Grady

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Businesses have begun looking for better ways to dispose of their outdated computers, printers and other electronic gear than pitching them into a trash can.

Recycling electronic waste, or e-waste, has become a growing concern among businesses as they upgrade equipment. It’s also a concern for computer distributors and manufacturers seeking to ensure their products — which often contain recyclable materials such as copper and gold, and sometimes potentially harmful ones such as lead — go through the right channels.

Businesses have been doing more, but still have a long way to go to make sure those products stay out of landfills, said Earl Campbell, president of E-waste Harvesters Inc. in Phoenix.

“I think the public is still lacking in education about electronic recycling,” he said. “I think they don’t realize there’s some hazardous materials in there.”

Curbing e-waste

Over the past five to 10 years, companies have become more aggressive in selecting recyclers for their e-waste, in part because of a growing backlash over the U.S. dumping the materials in Third World countries.

At Avnet Inc., one of the largest technology suppliers in the world, the quest to curb e-waste started about six years ago when it looked at the equipment being returned by customers. The approach began more for financial than environmental reasons, said John Beimfohr,

Avnet’s director of integration.

The Phoenix company was creating e-waste when it refurbished old equipment. Avnet now reuses the equipment it can and disposes of the rest through a liquidator. Avnet audits the liquidator to make sure the company is doing what it says it is with the waste, Beimfohr said.

“Now we’re looking beyond that at what we do internally,” he said, adding that the company has to do something with the equipment used by its 11,000 global employees.

Microchip Technology Inc. has a different concern with e-waste. As a manufacturer, it has little control over how the products that use its devices are recycled. At the same time, it controls what it can within its facilities to generate as little e-waste as possible and to offer its employees a chance to recycle their older gear, said Alan Abbott, senior manager of environmental services for the Chandler company.

“We recognize that if this type of material is not properly handled, it can harm the environment,” he said. “We want to do the right thing.”

Microchip also audits the company it uses to recycle its e-waste.

Abbot said the chip-maker follows primarily federal laws in dealing with waste disposal, and Arizona laws generally mirror those. Not all waste collectors are the same, but the regulations have remained fairly stable for years, he said.

“It’s really a complicated program if you want to do it right,” Abbot said, adding that Microchip has been recycling e-waste since 1989.

voluntary programs

The electronics industry isn’t the only one concerned with e-waste. Stantec Inc., a San Francisco-based design and construction business with offices in Phoenix, has a companywide policy for dealing with computers and electronics, said Michael Yu, regional information technology manager for the company’s U.S. operations.

“Looking at the way technology rolls over, we’re looking at recycling every computer we have every five to six years,” he said.

Recyclers and collectors have seen an increase in the amount of material flowing through their waste streams. Some, including Westech Recycling in Phoenix, have teamed with city governments to provide free e-waste collection days so residents can get old equipment out of their homes.

“In the recession, we weren’t able to do a lot moneywise, but the material we collected stayed about the same,” said Earl Knudsen, president of Westech.

The Phoenix collector has been in business for about 14 years and has more than 100 employees. It also works with Arizona Students Recycling Used Technology, a nonprofit that provides refurbished equipment to schools while using the refurbishment process as a training ground for people interested in learning computer repair skills.

Microchip also is involved in similar programs in the Valley.

Rich Thompson, director of compliance at Phoenix-based Republic Services Inc., one of the largest solid-waste companies in the country, said Republic does work in about 20 states where waste collection rules are more stringent than federal laws.

“E-waste is a small percentage of the overall waste stream that we manage, but it’s getting a lot of attention from regulators,” he said.

Republic does not recycle e-waste, but Thompson said it audits the recyclers it deals with to make sure they are doing what they say they are. The company uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s voluntary Responsible Recycling certification to augment its own program, Thompson said.

Campbell said with the widespread switch from standard to high-definition televisions in recent years, as well as an increase in the number of mobile devices, the amount of e-waste being produced is growing. His company’s goal is for nothing to go to landfills. All parts are either stripped down locally or sent to recyclers that handle circuit boards and other elements.

E-waste Harvesters was started in 2007 after Campbell left another recycler that had been bought out. The company has about 13 employees. In 2009, it brought in more than 960,000 pounds of used electronics — up about 300 percent from its first year, Campbell said.

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